


Four-footed Matchmaker

by rainbowgoddess



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-20
Updated: 2011-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-20 14:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowgoddess/pseuds/rainbowgoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Danny discover a stray dog. As they start learning how to take care of a dog, they find that people seem to think that they're a couple. Things come to a head when the dog's real owner comes forward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four-footed Matchmaker

As Danny was dropping off Steve after work, he suddenly asked, "When did you get a dog?"

"Dog?" asked Steve. "What dog? I don't have a dog."

"The dog that is sitting in front of your house, Babe," Danny pointed out.

They got out of the Camaro and approached the dog cautiously. "Here, boy," Steve called.

"How do you know it's a boy?" Danny asked, but the dog, a nondescript brown mutt about the size of a German shepherd, approached them anyway, wagging its tail.

"Seems friendly enough," Steve commented as he scratched the dog behind its ears. "He probably belongs to someone and just got lost."

Danny pointed out that the dog was very skinny. Its ribs were showing. There was no sign of a collar. "Looks like a stray," he said unnecessarily.

Steve sighed. "Well, I'll take him inside and call the SPCA, and I'll check out the lost pet ads in the paper. Hopefully someone misses him."

"Are you going to feed him?" Danny asked.

They wound up making a quick trip to the supermarket to buy a couple of cans of dog food.

The next day when Danny saw Steve, he immediately asked about his partner's new canine houseguest. "Any luck tracking down his owners?"

Steve sighed. "Not so far. You may be right about his being a stray. He's such a friendly dog, and he likes people so much, that you'd think he had a family somewhere."

Danny shrugged. "Maybe he did once. Maybe they just couldn't take care of him anymore. The way things have been going with the economy the last couple of years, I've heard that lots of people can't afford to take care of their pets any longer, so they abandon them. Gracie heard about it on TV, and it made her cry, so she decided to start donating part of her allowance to the SPCA."

"Does Gracie want a dog?" Steve asked.

"No, Babe," Danny laughed. "Step-Stan's allergic. And before you ask, I'm not allowed to have a dog at my place. Besides, Navy SEALS have dogs, don't they? They used one to help them capture that terrorist guy a few weeks ago."

Steve agreed that Navy SEALS did, in fact, have dogs. That didn't mean that he wanted one. But it looked like he might be stuck with this one. He didn't want to hand him over to a shelter to be euthanized if no one came forward to claim him.

"I'll keep looking for his owners," Steve said. "For now, I've asked Kamekona to look in on him while I'm at work."

Later that day, Kamekona arrived at Five-0 headquarters. "Howzit, _brah_ ," he greeted Danny. "Boss around?"

Danny nodded towards Steve's office. "He's in there."

When Kamekona walked into his office, Steve was immediately worried. "Is everything okay? Is the dog all right?" He'd almost said "my dog," he realized.

"I dunno," Kamekona answered. "He wouldn't let me in the house."

"What do you mean, he wouldn't let you? He's a dog."

"I mean he went like this." Kamekona imitated a dog's bark and growl. "Grr, woof woof, grr." He bared his teeth for emphasis.

"All right, I get it," Steve sighed. "Thanks anyway, Kamekona."

"Anytime, _braddah_ ," Kamekona said cheerfully as he left.

Steve called Danny into his office. "We're going to my house," he announced.

"Okay. Why?"

"To check on the dog. He wouldn't let Kamekona in the house."

As they approached the front door of his house, Steve started to draw his gun. Danny stopped him.

"Put that away! What are you pulling your gun for? You planning to shoot the poor defenceless dog?"

"Well, if he's fierce...."

"Steve, he's defending his territory. He sees your house as being his now. He thought Kamekona was an intruder."

Cautiously, Steve opened the door. The dog was right there and greeted both of them with a wagging tail.

"See?" Danny said. "Not fierce. Hello, pooch. Hey, he needs a name."

"I never said I was keeping him," Steve pointed out. "I haven't even finished checking to see if he has a home already."

"I guess you should keep checking, but judging from the state we found him in, I don't think he has anyone — anyone other than you, that is," Danny added. "I think you've been adopted, Babe."

The next few days seemed to prove Danny right. There was no sign of anyone coming forward to claim the dog, and no "lost pet" notices that resembled him.

Finally, about a week after the dog first appeared at his door, Steve called Danny. "Want to come with me to take the dog to the vet? I figure if he's going to live with me, he should get a checkup and have his shots and everything."

"Have you named him yet?" was Danny's first question when he arrived at Steve's.

"Yeah, I'm going to call him Ilio."

"Ilio? Where's that from?" Danny asked.

"It's the Hawaiian word for dog."

"Oh. So you have a dog named 'Dog.' Real original." Danny looked around at Steve's furniture. "Uh, Steve, your furniture is looking a bit — what's the right word? — chewed."

"I know," Steve sighed. "I guess Ilio doesn't like being alone all day."

"What happened to Kamekona looking after him?"

"Like I told you before, he won't let Kamekona in the house. You said it was because he considers the house to be his territory, and Kamekona's an intruder."

"Then why don't you introduce them?" Danny asked.

"What are you talking about, Danno?"

"Introduce the dog to Kamekona. Then he'll know that our rather large friend is one of the good guys, and there won't be any more trouble."

"How come you know so much about dogs?" Steve asked.

Danny shrugged. "Had a dog when I was a kid. But I'm not an expert. You might want to talk to someone who knows about dogs, or take a class, or something."

"Okay. I'll ask at the vet's office if they know someone."

Other than being malnourished and having some fleas, Ilio was given a clean bill of health by the vet. He got his shots, and the vet announced that he'd already been neutered. When Steve asked about recommendations for a dog trainer, the vet asked his assistant to pull up a list.

When Steve and Danny were on their way out, the assistant came hurrying after them. "I almost forgot. I meant to give you this along with the list. Hope to see you there." And he hurried off again.

Danny and Steve saw that the paper they'd been given was an invitation to something called the "Big Gay Dog Walk," which was coming up in a few weeks. This was an event for the local glbt community to get together with their pets.

"He thinks we're a couple," Steve observed.

"Not any different from the number of people who think we're married," Danny replied. "Does it bother you?"

"No, it doesn't bother me," Steve answered immediately. "I just wonder sometimes what it is about you and me that makes people think we're a couple."

"I don't know, Babe," Danny answered.

"Maybe it's because you call me 'Babe.'"

"When I call you Babe, it's a term of endearment," Danny said.

Steve laughed at the familiar words. "That's fine. Do it every day. I like it."

When they arrived at Steve's truck, Ilio jumped into the cab instead of into the truck bed. The two men looked at him. "Looks like he knows his place already," Danny observed. "He's riding shotgun."

Steve decided not to bother arguing with the dog. He got into the driver's seat, and Danny squeezed into the passenger side next to Ilio.

Over the next few weeks Steve and Danny took Ilio to obedience classes. The dog did well. Danny speculated that he might have had some training before he became a stray.

Most of the other people at the classes also assumed that Steve and Danny were a couple. They stopped trying to argue otherwise when they realized they didn't have a good explanation for why Danny was going to the classes with Steve when Ilio was supposedly Steve's dog.

Steve also made sure to invite his friends over to his house as often as possible in order to get Ilio used to them. He didn't want any more incidents of the dog not letting friends into the house, but he liked the idea of his keeping strangers out. He had barbecues and other get-togethers almost every weekend, and invited Kono, Chin, Danny and sometimes Kamekona as well. Not everyone could attend every week, but Danny was always there, and the parties always seemed to end with just Danny and Steve. Danny often wound up spending the night in Steve's spare room.

One Friday afternoon after a particularly gruelling week, Steve invited his teammates over to his house for a barbecue, as he'd become accustomed to doing lately. This time Chin and Kono both had other plans, but Danny accepted. Steve had been feeling a bit under the weather, but he ignored the symptoms, as he usually did. He usually told himself that he didn't have time to get sick.

"I'm hungry enough to eat these raw," Steve commented as he put steaks on the barbecue. "And don't you get any ideas," he said to Ilio.

"Have you eaten anything today?" Danny asked in concern.

"No. Didn't have time to. Don't worry, I'll make up for it. But first I'm going to take a swim, otherwise I really will be tempted to eat those steaks raw."

"I know they say not to go swimming on a full stomach. Is it any better to go on an empty stomach?" Danny asked. He touched Steve's forehead. "You're awfully warm, by the way."

Steve shrugged. "I've probably got some bug that's going around. I'll be okay. Keep an eye on him while I'm gone." He pointed to his dog.

Danny occupied himself with the steaks and the rest of the evening's food while Steve went swimming. He also threw a ball for Ilio for awhile. After some time had passed, though, he started to wonder why Steve had been gone for so long. He turned to the dog. "Hey, go down to the beach and find out when your master is coming back," Danny said.

To his surprise, Ilio ran down towards the beach. He was back moments later, barking loudly and pulling at the hem of Danny's shirt.

"Whoa, Lassie, what's the matter? Is Timmy in the well?"

Ilio whimpered and pulled on Danny's shirt again.

"Okay, I get the idea. I'm coming."

Danny followed the dog down to the beach, where he found an unconscious Steve lying face-down in the sand at the water's edge. Running to his partner's side, Danny grabbed his cell phone and called 911 as he turned Steve over and tried to determine if he was breathing. Once he was satisfied that Steve was breathing, he rolled him on to his side in case Steve had swallowed water and needed to throw up.

Ilio walked around his master's prone form, whimpered, and nudged Steve with his nose. Danny found himself trying to reassure the dog that Steve would be okay.

When the ambulance arrived, Danny had to hold on to Ilio and try to communicate to him that the paramedics were there to help Steve. Eventually the dog seemed to understand that these people were not going to hurt his master, and he stopped snarling at them, much to the relief of the paramedics.

"Can you tell us anything about your friend here that might be helpful in understanding what's wrong?" one of the medics asked Danny.

"He seemed like he had a fever before he went swimming," Danny told them. "And he hasn't had anything to eat today."

Steve was loaded into the ambulance, and the paramedics asked Danny if he wanted to ride with him.

"I'd like to, but I have to go back and turn off the barbecue before I burn the house down. Also, I'll have to lock him up," he said, referring to Ilio.

But apparently Ilio wasn't having any of it. Danny had to restrain him from chasing the ambulance that was carrying his master and drag him back to the house. After he shut down the barbecue, he grabbed some clothes for Steve, since he'd been taken away in his swimsuit. He was going to just leave the dog in the house, but Ilio looked so unhappy that Danny relented.

"All right. You can come with me. But you have to stay in the car. They don't allow dogs in hospitals."

When Danny arrived at the hospital, Steve was already conscious and feeling better. "What happened?" Danny asked.

"The doctor said I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar," Steve explained. "Guess I shouldn't have been doing strenuous exercise after not eating all day. Also, I have some sort of virus that was messing up my system. How long was I out? Do you know?"

"I don't know," Danny answered. "I was fixing the food, and the dog came running up to me, barking his head off, and started yanking on my shirt. So I followed him down to the beach and found you there unconscious. I don't know if you passed out in the surf and floated on to the beach, or if you passed out on the beach, or what. How much do you remember?"

Steve thought for a moment. "I was swimming, and I started to not feel well, so I started heading back towards the beach. Once I got into the shallow water I tried to walk the rest of the way in, and at some point I got dizzy and collapsed. Did Ilio really come get you?"

"I was getting worried about you, and just as a joke I told him to go looking for you. He ran off down the beach, and then he came back and did the whole Lassie thing."

"Ilio really did that?" Steve asked with a grin. "That's pretty impressive."

"Yeah, and besides that, he didn't want to let the paramedics touch you, and then he wanted to chase behind the ambulance and I had to hang on to him to stop him. If they're ready to let you go, he's waiting out in the car for you." Danny looked around for someone who could tell him whether it was okay for Steve to leave the hospital. He noticed that his friend was getting a lot of attention from nurses, both female and male, probably because he was still wearing only a swimsuit.

Eventually they were able to find a doctor to officially discharge Steve, with instructions to rest for at least the rest of the weekend, have a few good meals, drink plenty of fluids and not do any more swimming for the next few days — or, if he insisted on swimming, not to do it alone.

"I guess you'll have to go swimming with me for once," Steve said to Danny when he heard the instructions.

Danny rolled his eyes. "In your dreams, Babe."

"Do the two of you live together?" the doctor suddenly asked.

"No," Steve answered, puzzled. "Why?"

"Well, it would be best if you weren't alone tonight, just in case you need help. I thought if you and your boyfriend lived together, then you already had someone to keep an eye on you."

Danny was about to argue with the doctor over the use of the term "boyfriend," but a look from Steve stopped him. He did, however, offer to spend the night at Steve's house, since he didn't have Grace that weekend.

Danny handed over the bag of clothes he'd brought for Steve, who drew the curtain around the bed and started to get dressed. “Whoa, whoa, you couldn't wait for me to get outside the curtain? You in that much of a hurry to get naked?”

“What's the big deal?” Steve asked. “We're both men, Danno. Not like I have anything you haven't seen before. Besides, as my boyfriend, you should be used to it.”

When they arrived back at Steve's house, they found a phone message waiting. Steve listened to it with a serious look on his face.

“What's wrong? Bad news?” Danny asked, seeing the expression.

“Someone is claiming Ilio,” Steve said.

“But it's been what, a couple months? Why didn't they come forward before?”

“He was away on business, on the Big Island. He just got back to Oahu.”

“So what are we going to do?” Danny asked.

“It's too late to call him back tonight. I'll have to talk to him tomorrow, first thing,” Steve sighed.

Danny put his arms around Steve and hugged him. “Maybe it'll be okay. Maybe he doesn't want the dog back. Maybe once he sees how attached Ilio is to you, he'll let you keep him. Hey, on a completely different subject, you haven't eaten yet.”

“I don't really feel like eating,” Steve objected.

“Yeah, I know, but like the doctor said, you gotta eat something.” He removed the half-done steaks from the barbecue and threw them in the trash. Then he dug around in Steve's freezer and found some more steaks, which he defrosted in the microwave before throwing them on the barbecue. While they cooked, he finished preparing the rest of the food.

When Danny set the plate of food down in front of Steve, he said, “Eat. Consider it an order.”

“I'm your boss, Danno. You can't give me orders.”

“You're temporarily incapacitated. That makes me the boss. Now stop arguing, and eat.”

To Danny's surprise, Steve did eat. He supposed the fact that Steve hadn't eaten in the last 24 hours, at least, had probably overcome any emotional resistance to eating.

“You planning to go for a swim in the morning?” Danny asked Steve before going to bed, mindful of the doctor's instructions.

“Would you come with me if I did?” Steve wanted to know.

Danny sighed. “Well, maybe I'd watch from the beach,” he said. “But I'd pull you out of the water before you drowned. Yes, I am able to swim,” he added to forestall any objections from Steve. “Like I told you, I just don't do it for recreation.”

“Don't worry about it,” Steve told him. “I'll just call the guy first thing in the morning, and we'll go see him. I don't think I'll feel like swimming tomorrow anyway.”

Danny hated to see how upset Steve was at the prospect of losing his dog. Not long after he went to bed, Danny got up again and moved quietly into Steve's room, where he saw Ilio sleeping at the foot of Steve's bed. Steve just lay there, not tossing or turning, staring at the ceiling.

Without a word, Danny climbed into bed next to Steve and took him in his arms. Before long, they were both asleep.

The next day a somber Danny and Steve put Ilio in Danny's car and headed out to meet the dog's purported owner. Neither of them said anything, and Ilio kept whining and licking them, as if he were trying to figure what was wrong with his human family.

The man who claimed Ilio was named John Alakama. “I don't believe it,” John said when he saw the dog. “It's Marco. Hi, Buddy. Do you remember me?” Ilio wagged his tail but didn't act as if he knew the man well.

“Where did you find him? When did you find him?” John wanted to know.

Steve explained the story of how Ilio had shown up at his house. “How long ago did you lose him?”

“Well, I'm not the one who actually lost him. See, my parents were in an accident, and they were killed. Marco was in the car with them, and he ran away when the rescue workers came. They couldn't catch him. One of them told me he thinks Marco tried to chase after the ambulance.

“Anyway, I looked for him for a couple of weeks, but I finally gave up when I couldn't find him. I was afraid he'd been injured in the crash after all, and he'd crawled away to die or something. I did put ads in the paper, but that would have been at least a week or two before you found him. Then I had to go to the Big Island on business, and when I got back one of my friends told me he'd seen your notice in the paper about finding a dog.” John pulled out his wallet. “Let me give you a reward for taking care of him.”

“No,” Steve refused. “I don't want a reward. Taking care of him has been a pleasure for us. He took good care of me, too, actually.”

“Well, I'll take him off your hands now, anyway,” John said.

“No.” Steve said again.

“Excuse me?”

“He's not really your dog, is he? He was your parents' dog,” Steve pointed out.

“What are you getting at?” John asked.

Danny pulled Steve to one side. “Hang on, Babe. How about you be nice to the man? Ever heard the saying about catching more flies with honey than vinegar? Not that anyone ever wants flies, but maybe the concept applies.”

“I get it,” Steve told Danny. He turned to John. “Look, I'm sorry. It's just that after all this time, Danny and I consider him to be our dog now. He likes living with us, and he pretty much saved my life last night."

John looked at Ilio. "What do you think, Marco? Do you want to live with these two guys?"

Ilio pushed his head under Steve's hand and wagged his tail again.

"It looks like he's made his own choice, Mr. McGarrett. Please, keep him. I'm not really set up to keep a dog. I travel between the islands all the time, and sometimes to the mainland. It wouldn't be fair to him. But I thought I should take responsibility for him, since he was my parents' dog, and they loved him."

"I'm sure he loved them, too. I'm sorry about your parents. If you ever want to see Marco — I call him Ilio now — please feel free to give me a call, and I'll see if we can arrange something."

The men shook hands, and Steve and Danny went home with their dog.

Later that day, when the two of them were sitting on the lanai having Longboards, Danny said to Steve, "Hey, uh, I want to ask you something."

"And what would that be?"

"You said that he's our dog, that he lives with us. Why did you say that? Last time I checked, he's your dog, and he lives with you. I don't live here &mdash: remember?"

Steve laughed. "You may as well live here, Danny. You sleep here. You eat here. We work together. We spend most of our free time together. We found Ilio together. We take him to the vet together. We took him to obedience classes together. We buy his food and his toys together. We do everything together except sleep together — and we did, in fact, sleep together last night. Everyone thinks we're a couple already, so why argue? We're a couple."

"I think you're missing one very important detail," Danny commented.

"What would that be?"

"The fact that when two people are a couple, sleeping together usually means doing a lot more than just sleeping, and we're not doing that."

"You mean we haven't done it **yet** ," was Steve's answer as he leaned over and kissed a very surprised Danny.

After he got over the surprise, Danny kissed Steve back, and soon they were all over each other. Steve finally called a halt before they got naked on the lanai. "This is what I have a bedroom for," he announced.

"One thing," Danny said.

"What?" Steve asked, suddenly concerned that Danny had changed his mind.

Danny pointed to Ilio. "The dog stays out of the bedroom for the duration."

END


End file.
